The Elite
by Celena Schezar
Summary: John fights one extremely persistent opponent.


Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the actual fic. Everything is copyrighted and all that jazz to its maker/owner and all that other official stuff.

**The Elite**

**By: Celena Schezar**

John-117 rounded the corner in a blur of motion. His enemy knew he was there; there was no reason in trying to be stealthy so he went in quick and hard. Shots rattled out of his MA5B assault rifle with deadly pursuit and ran into the Elite's shimmering shield. The Covenant warrior growled and ducked behind another purple crate. The Master Chief followed his opponent's example and side-stepped back around the corner.

His empty clip clattered to the floor as the Chief reloaded his gun in a hurry. He side-stepped back out from the corner and continued to crab-walk until he was on the opposite side of the room. He stayed facing the Elite's last known position the entire time.

The Elite roared a challenge as he sprinted out from behind the crate and headed straight for the naval noncom. His mandibles clicked with excitement for the anticipation of the kill as he neared the Spartan. John fired his rounds in controlled bursts of three-to-six, taking careful aim as the Covenant weaved back and forth out of the shots' line. As the Elite got close to his prey, John's clip ran out of bullets and he quickly slung the weapon over his shoulder and pulled out his sidearm. The M6D pistol cracked twice before the Elite was practically on top of him.

The Elite came at John unarmed. Just a few seconds earlier the Spartan had taken the entire room by surprise with a couple of grenades and quick, precise shots with his rifle. Several Covenant lay dead around the room when he slowly entered and it surprised John to find that one sturdy Elite had managed to live. The Elite never had the chance to grab a weapon and an attack upon this particular place was never expected.

John leapt to the side as the Elite's fist came down at him. He came up with the pistol aimed, but the Elite was quick. The Chief did not have time to fire even a single round. He rolled out of the way as another strike was aimed at his helmeted face and came up on his feet. This time he ran.

Giving him the distance needed to take aim and fire, John swirled around to face the stubborn Elite. It was gone.

Master Chief never liked leaving things to chance though; he knew the Elite was not yet dead and he did not like the prospect of a Covenant threat to his back. The Chief slowly moved forward, glancing around the Covenant-purple crates and watching his forward at the same time. Master Chief neared the intersecting hallway he had first started off in with no current sign of the Elite. Repressing a grimace of annoyance, the Spartan moved cautiously around the corner.

Nothing.

John frowned. There was nowhere else for the Elite to be hiding, but the Spartan did not want to trek back the way he had come just to find one stubborn Covenant warrior. The Master Chief gave one more thorough look around the room, checked every single crate and shadowy hiding place, and then decided to proceed. Hating it, but needing to continue without such a long delay, SPARTAN-117 headed for the exit.

The Chief rounded the corner and instantly met with opposition. Four Grunts and two Jackals fell quickly to the Chief's superior fighting skills. He moved on, disappearing Elite forgotten.

Several more hallways led Master Chief into another open room, slightly larger than the last. More crates colored the sickly purple color so beloved of the Covenant were stacked variously around the open space. To the far side of the room stood two Hunters, their shields already at the ready.

John jumped forward over the first green shot fired at him and landed halfway across the room from the beasts. The other fired its shot next, and John simply side-stepped this one as he took aim with his assault rifle. The first one roared defiance as it saw both shots so easily avoided and rushed forward with the intent of crushing the Master Chief with its heavy shield.

John focused his fire on the aggressive Hunter, aiming for its weak orange spots just barely visible beneath the thick armor as it ran at him. The creature staggered as its soft skin was riddled with bullets, but kept coming. John eventually had to backpedal out of the way or be rammed by the Hunter's massive shield. The giant creature swung the make-shift battering ram with a sudden burst of speed and the Master Chief barely sidestepped out of the way. He used the brief moment of confusion as the beast reoriented itself on the Chief's position to reload his gun. Another burst of riffle ammo tore through the Hunter's unprotected flesh.

The Hunter roared and then suddenly fell to the ground dead. The Chief quickly spun on his heels and readied himself for the forthcoming attack of revenge from the second Hunter. Not only was the other beast smart enough to not fire its weapon while its brother battled in close combat with the Spartan, but it also seemed to be unaffected by its bonded's death. Or at least in the sense that it did not scream vengeance and rush straight at the Chief with blatant rage.

Instead it remained calm and took careful aim at the MJOLNIR armored Spartan, intending to extract its revenge from a safe distance. An angry blast of green slag shot towards the Chief and he quickly jumped to safety. He no more wanted to face the other Hunter in close combat than the Hunter seemed to with him, so the Chief let him have it. A blue, pulsating grenade flew through the air and landed solidly on the front end armor of the beast near the unprotected spot at the neck. He beast gave a sorrowful cry as its revenge was not met before it died, shot off one more fire at its antagonist, and then splattered orange blood everywhere as the plasma grenade went off in a flash of blue-white light. It slumped slowly to the ground, and then left the mortal realm.

The Master Chief shook his head clear as he stood motionless for a moment; the last attack from the Hunter hitting a bit too close for comfort and sending his shields to the red-line. He waited patiently for them to come back online, then ran past the broken bodies without a second glance.

The next couple of hallways were again full of varying Covenant soldiers, mostly Grunts and Jackals. The next room John came across was the one he was looking for. Computer consoles and complex Covenant technology filled the room before him. He walked up to one console in particular and began the work assigned to him by Cortana before he left her earlier.

A low growl interrupted the Master Chief mid-type. His fingers froze and for a moment he stopped breathing, listening carefully to the sounds behind him. Sure enough, the low growl continued in the slow rhythm of a breathing Elite. Master Chief turned around slowly to see the black armored Elite from earlier, the one he never killed. A glowing plasma sword flashed in its hand.

The Chief stared directly at it as the Elite stared back at him. So it wanted a duel. The Chief could honor that.

John un-slung his assault riffle and fired off a full clip into the Elite's shield before anything else happened. Both stood perfectly still as the Elite took all the hits. As the clip finished the Elite's shields crumpled and the Chief threw the expended weapon away. Now began the real battle.

With a battle-cry the Elite leapt towards the Chief. John-117 was pulling out his M6D pistol as the Elite rushed him, sword held high for an attack. The Chief brought his left arm up and blocked the downward slash just above his head. The energy sword's proximity caused sparks to flash along Master Chief's shields as he held the deadly weapon just inches away from his helmet.

With a grunt of exertion the Chief pushed the Elite's arm back and caused the warrior to take a few steps back or else loose its sense of balance. As it steadied itself and prepared another deadly swing, Master Chief raised his pistol and opened fire. The Elite was caught off guard, but not for long.

The first bullet struck the Covenant in the side; with its shields down the projectile actually struck, but the armor held in place although it now sported a nasty crack all the way up and down the chest piece. The second bullet just barely missed its target. Not for lack of aim of the Chief's part, but for the quick reflexes of the Elite. The Elite gracefully leapt to the side, went down into a beautiful cat-roll, and came up on its feet running. It jumped behind a computer console just as another bullet whizzed by its head.

John ceased fire immediately. He needed the computers in the room to be in working condition when he completed this battle; he was not yet finished working with them. Checking the amount of rounds left in the chamber, John began his trek around the consoles when a roar emanated from behind him. The Elite was quick, he had run across the room behind the entire line of computer consoles as John took his time to round the corner. Spinning on his heel to face the warrior, the Chief began to open fire once again.

Two shots hit, a third was barely dodged, and after that the Chief no longer had a weapon in his hands. The Elite rushed full out again, its regenerated shields taking the two bullets before it sidestepped around the Spartan and came up quickly with its fist. It swiped the pistol out of John's hands with a quick, hard blow and then swept one of its legs underneath his knees. John went down hard, back first.

Without missing a beat however, the Spartan rolled over his head and into a low defensive position, hands out martial arts style. The Elite had not counted on this; he had gone for a blow where the Spartan would have been if he had merely landed on his back. The energy sword sparked on the ground just in front of the Chief, the Elite kneeling down to reach the fallen warrior, its head quickly angled back up to glare at the rapid-paced Spartan. John moved his first two fingers in a parabola over his helmet, using the Spartan sign for a smile to indicate a smirk. The Elite did not understand the sign, but it certainly understood the gesture's meaning. It growled and lunged forward with its sword out first.

The Chief checked his shield gauge with a quick glance then flooded the section on the palm of his hands with an over-the-recommended amount of energy. His hands felt slick to the touch.

It was a long shot and, without Cortana to double-check his hasty calculations, it was almost a death-wish. He counted on his improbable luck, however, and tried it anyway.

The Master Chief slapped his hands together two inches away from his helmeted face. The energy blade was caught in the Chief's hands, an inch of the blade peeking out from between his hands and nearly scraping against the thin film left to his facial energy shield. The trick had worked—the Master Chief's hands were not burnt away from touching the blade because his heightened energy shield around his hands prevented the blade from touching him. But the Chief's shield would not last forever. Already the gauge on his HUD had dropped to less than three-quarters.

It is hard to pry the grip off an object when the opponent has two thumbs, one on each side, but the Chief somehow managed to grapple the energy blade away from his opponent. By the time he had the blade in his own possession his energy shield was in the red-line and the warning system blared loudly in his helmet. The Chief chinned a button to turn off the annoying alarm and continued the fight.

Without hesitating to wonder how he managed the grappling feat or worrying about his all but non-existent shield, the Master Chief took the sword firmly in his right hand and slashed at the Elite. The alien's shield flashed brightly once then faded from view completely. The Chief knew he had the Elite on the run now.

The Elite tried to leap away, but the Chief grabbed at him before he could roll with it. Dragging the Elite back towards him by the alien's arm, the Master Chief swung the blade again and again. He saw blue blood hit the floor and the eight-foot alien roared for all it was worth. It did not, however, want to go down so easily.

The Chief stumbled back as he felt a blow to his chin connect with his helmet. The display in his HUD indicated his shield was out for the count, and the alarm beeped once in its off mode just to make sure he noticed anyway. Clearing his head quickly, Master Chief swept the sword up to block another attack and watched the Elite rapidly draw back its fists as the energy blade drew too close for comfort.

The battle was over, though, and both parties recognized the fact. The Elite clacked its mandibles arrogantly and gave an impressed nod to the armored human. The Chief, in turn, nodded back at the Elite just before he lunged forward to finish the job.

There was a small struggle, but the energy sword eventually won. The Elite's still warm body fell to the floor and a small amount of blood surrounded the decapitated form; the rest of the blue fluid stayed inside the body as the wound cauterized from the heat of the blade.

John de-activated the energy sword and stood for a moment over his hard-fought victory. He stared down at the bodiless head, a blank stare straight into the alien's amber colored eyes. His reverie broke a few seconds later, what felt like hours, and he turned back to the consoles. He tucked the lifeless blade into his belt, gathered up the fallen pistol, and began his work on computers once more.

Finishing his original mission, the Master Chief turned to leave. He gave one final glance to his opponent—even gave it a small salute—then left to find another battlefield.


End file.
